What exactly makes the Bay Area so unique? Is it the atmosphere, the attitude and the
people, or is it the culture and nightlife we have to offer? We like to think it's a combination of both with an extra
dash of secret special sauce. Either way - we're lucky to live in such an amazing place; therefore, it's practically
an obligation to get out and take advantage of such a bounty. On Thursday, eat your way to good karma at restaurants
all over SF for Dining Out for Life benefiting The Stop AIDS project. After your meal, catch the opening night of the
San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre. Then put on your dancing shoes and get warmed up for
Bay Area National Dance Week where you can take in classes or performances for the next ten days. Included in the
festivities is the Fire Dancing Expo at Union Square happening Saturday. And if you feel it's time to get in touch
with yourself and get healthier, you're in luck - this weekend is the New Living Expo at the Concourse Exhibition Center
where you can see over 300 exhibits and 100 speakers all there to help you live better!

Gray Area Gallery is launching its newest program focused completely on the emergence of software and technology based art, the only gallery in the bay area with such a unique focus. its opening event will be during Web 2.0 Expo with part of the GAB space and a presense at the web 2 expo as part of Blogtropol.us...

Oliver Wood played guitar. He moved to Atlanta, honed his instrumental and vocal chops, and formed one of the Southeasts most popular rock bands, King Johnson. Chris Wood played bass. He moved to New York, immersed himself in the citys lively jazz-and-improv scene, and formed the internationally acclaimed instrumental trio called Medeski Martin & Wood.

Sebastien & Harry Denton invite you to a special Gold Series at Indulgence Wednesdays. Celebrate a Wednesday night of DJs, dancing, cocktails, and friends while enjoying the gorgeous views of San Francisco's skyline from Harry Denton's Starlight Room on the 21st floor atop Union Square.

"Set the standard; then raise the bar. Or in New York City's Luca Venezia's case - totally destroy that bar on a global scale. The 25-year-old known as Drop The Lime (and Curses!) is the iconoclastic club fiend of the 21st Century. Producer, remixer and DJ, he started out at 17 and has since dropped approx 150 underground classics...

Comparisons to the usual avant-garde forefathers - Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Tom Waits - persist, but Man Man are decidedly not identity thieving or even overtly referencing these spiritual godfathers in their music, but rather are acting as torchbearers of the unusual, the spontaneous and the plainly fucking funny in an increasingly homogenized world...

Free Show! Last year Australian trio Midnight Juggernauts gained attention abroad, after its spacey- prog-rock caught the attention of Justice, who immediately invited them to join their tour. The Midnight Juggernauts are set to release their debut album, Dystopia, May 27 on Astralwerks...

Last year Dining Out for Life raised over $210,000 thanks to people like you. This year promises to be even bigger and better but we can't do it without your help. Call one of our participating restaurants and make your reservation today. It will be one of the most satisfying meals you ever eat...

From April 24 to May 8, the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF51) will bring the world to San Francisco by screening over 100 unique programs of the finest in international cinema. Hundreds of filmmakers, journalists, film industry professionals, and more than 80,000 film-lovers...

The minute this humorous track ("Short Dick Cuizi") got put on her MySpace page, people rushed to hear it: 2000 plays after just two days, fan comments and private concert requests came from all over the world including places never heard of before, as well as crooked deals by major record labels...

40 years after the Summer of Love (and 30 years after the Summer of Hate), MGMT is celebrating the grand re-opening of the third eye of the world with "Oracular Spectacular," the duo's much-anticipated full-length album, an enigmatic and prophetic collection of hallucinatory sounds and hook-riddled pop tones for the new millennium.

This year's festival once again offers a huge roster of programs - including free classes, performances, rehearsals, lecture demonstrations and studio open houses - giving a wide-angle view of the many and varied styles of dance practiced in the region. Ranging from established company programs to one-time events...

Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS) is pleased to celebrate Petchitecture 12 (say: Pet-kuh-tek-chur). Petchitecture raises funds for PAWS by auctioning off pet habitats designed by local architects & designers. PAWS provides comprehensive support services to over 530 low-income clients living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling illnesses...

Featuring DJ Solarz of the renowned Rock-It Scientists. With Complimentary Red Bull and Lotus Vodka tasting from 8pm - 10:30pm. It should be an amazing night of fun with many special surprises and performances in store...

As a fixture of the San Francisco music scene since 2001, Mud has developed a strong loyal following of fans addicted to the band's heavy guitar riffs, infectious melodies and collection of high energy pop songs, that draw comparisons to successful crossover bands like Blondie, Green Day, and Jimmy Eat World.

KUSF 31st Birthday Celebration! "The Wooden Shjips and Citay are rising in the Bay Area music scene and coming into national prominence," said David Hargis, KUSF program coordinator. "And with East Bay musician Jenny Hoyston, who is part of the backbone of the local punk scene, also taking the stage, we have three of the most powerful local bands coming out to play for the benefit of community radio."

It's time for Are Friends Electric?, the party of 2008 continues... Over the past 2-years, Institubes has become one of the labels that embody what the press calls the "New French Sound" or "French Touch 2.0." Uniting hip-hop ala france and techno ala daft, this crew makes a party like no other.

Bring a chair and a blanket and join us for our free fire dancing show in San Francisco's legendary Union Square (Geary and Post) for the third annual Temple of PoiGeek Fire Dancing Expo. In addition to some amazing student performances, local talent, and artists from around the USA, this show features world-renowned performers from 3 continents and 5 countries...

From the organizers of Urban Golf, What's Your Answer and the Urban Iditarod comes: Kite Fight! Flying pretty kites at Chrissy Fields is for sissies, the 9.8th Fighting Kite Brigade challenges you to a kite duel.

Cut Copy, the indie-electro-dance explosion of three, has returned with the shimmering and timeless In Ghost Colours. Haunted with machines of the past and sounds of the future, In Ghost Colours inhabits the kind of space in time where trends are irrelevant and music is about feeling rather than following and 1969 is just as relevant as 2020...

A dark satire by Pulitzer Prize winner and Academy Award nominee Sam Shepard, Curse of the Starving Class is at once hilarious and profound, frighteningly true, and delightfully surreal. In a newly revised staging by bold, young American director Peter DuBois...

A night of deep dub, classic dance hall, roots reggae, and dub poetry. The night will be recorded for release on the up-and-coming Revolutionsound's "Live Session Series." So come on down to Dub Mission, check out this exclusive Bay Area performance...

The Izzies awards celebrate the unique richness, diversityand excellence of Bay Area dance. Izzies will be awarded in nine categories foroutstanding achievement by dancers, choreographers, their collaborators,composers, and others contributing to the vitality and advancement of the BayArea's dance community.

Devotchka may be the best band in America you've never heard of. This fascinating little quartet from Denver Colorado has made a wistful, beautifully-arranged something that isn't really an indie rock record, and isn't really a jazz record, and isn't really a mariachi/norteno (or Eastern European) folk record. It's the album Calexico should have been making all these years.